LP with Insert / Download. Edition of 250.

The 2006 Nightmare Before Christmas festival was one of the most bodacious assemblages of raw human talent assembled on our planet since the First Continental Congress. But it wasn’t all just guys and it wasn’t all just proto-Americans, so that means it was far better than any other such gathering before and/or after.

One of the crazier highlights of the weekend-long event was the set by Italy’s insane fraternal duo, My Cat Is An Alien. Using guitars and various other kaboobs, the Opalio boys set Red’s (aka Stage 2) on fire that Sunday night, blasting out zoned croaks, wobbly drones and the kind of blabbermouth logic you usually can’t access without written permission from a doctor. There were many ecstatic musical yawps during that long-ago weekend, but MCIAA’s set left a deep groove in my memory. And it’s a stone pleasure to revisit it after lo, these many years.

Two blurts of side-ling mystery, packed in Roberto Opalio’s wonderful art, with a little liner note booklet that can only hint at what you may have missed. Thankfully, if you slap on the disc, close your eyes and sniff a can of beer while lying down, you can approximate the whirling thrill ride of the set itself. And sometimes an approximation is both closer to home and more comfortable than an actual experience. So, yeah — you’re welcome! -Byron Coley, 2019